tram ride
crowded people
breathing the winter air
Squashed and squished like eggs in a jar
daily
Author: Charlie Alford
I like to think I'm a story teller. I love stories. I believe the world is filled with stories just waiting to be told and learned. I enjoy travelling down the road less travelled, with my iPhone and journal in each hand. Here you'll find all my poetic musings... Enjoy!
Thoughts of an Elizabethan Traveller
Great Winter hath followed this heavy heart
foundeth myself upon a rustic inn
I beseech’d the Sirrah to play their part
pity fell upon mine self and cousin
Pray thou bestow us with hot steamy broth
methinks thy counsel is wiser than some
perchance thy maid could bringeth us some cloth
wherefore I wash in thy room, hither come.
Hark! The Queens gold I have a few pieces
opportune trades beckon from town yonder
pray let me returneth thy good kindness
mine fortune, I giveth thee to plunder.
For thy selfless goodwill thy shalt be repaid
anon, thine soul shalt be measured and weighed.
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A note for Sixty
Inspired by Pooky’s Poetry Prompt 60: Sixty
A note to sixty-year-old Charlie
We’ve always had futuristic optimistic dreams
of an iCharlie with silver hair
thoughts of 2045 – what a nightmare
yes, coffee! Plug me in there
Scanning and programming a human consciousness
it’s United States of Earth, right?
Here they’re conversing, rehearsing political folly
with the best interests – of them!
I am writing from English Atlantis
Are we still here at Sixty?
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Through the eyes of a koala…
I have the mind of a fox
the meaning of life is in eucalypts
I chomp along the unknown path
clutching to the pillars of history
originally from the east coast
I’m not a bear, you know.
Sharp minds need lots of sleep
the meaning of life is in sleeping
it is the beginning – koalapocalpyse!
the sounds of chainsaws ring
rippling like stones thrown on a lake
the saddest song for lots of species
fill the tall tree’s of character
warning – the humans are coming!
Can we put them on exhibition?
Oh, I dream of eternal eucalypts
cascading over our country
I think I’ll go to sleep now…
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Keep Calm and Carry On
Her lion heart is beating true
inhaling buckets of vindaloo
hearing the drums, seeing bright red
taste of fresh grass – battles ahead
Failure is the tide coming in
sail the ’66 bandwagon
1 of 19, the news said,
the empire is certainly dead.
Her little red mane knows the score
generations have seen it before.
Are they all just cream-crackered?
Lost, alone, completely battered?
No – because the pride roars loudly
dancing Nobby’s dance – hopefully.
We may have misguided hope
pride of St. George others can’t scope
even when their mighty paws
graze the grass like kitty claws
she WILL put the ball in the net
and put on a show you won’t forget!
Once this small cub ran through the town
painted red: oh, what a clown
screaming “Viva L’Angleterre”
the solid cup would soon be theirs.
Sigh, Keep Calm and Carry On
is the soul of this nations song.
Inspiration:
My new ‘Keep Calm & Carry On’ Mug
Englands losses in the first round.
Baddiel & Skinner ‘It’s Coming Home’ – England’s 1996 football anthem.
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Anniversary of Me
Anniversary of Me – A work in progress
16.6.1985 –
The makings of summer began for them
early Fathers Day, 1985
and they said hello to their first daughter.
The sounds waves of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’
brought goosebumps to his faded green tattoos
as he met her little brown eyes, gazing.
Soft olive clay ready to be moulded
her mentor, a ginger cat named Garfield
she learnt to love pasta and hate Mondays.
The years have passed like the ticks of a clock
nonsensical counting from birth to death
pausing to celebrate, commemorate.
Little pastel soldiers stand in a line
as a wave of fire sets their heads alight
and the incessant chanting begins.
Twenty-Nine years – she has seen fire and rain
climbed high mountains and sailed along rivers
travelling this long colourful rainbow.
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Padlocks
Inspired by Pooky’s Poetry Prompt: Pyramid
padlocks
solid and firm
linking and connecting
two souls happily on a bridge
together forever
in the city
of love.
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When I was a little girl…
When I was a little girl I would wander
through ancient woods and historic villages
admiration, reverence, longing to know
wishing, praying I could travel through time
with a yearning of how we got here.
Now, I flick through records and photographs
curious wonderment in my brown eyes
watching the branches stretch into history
stories of miners and farm labourers.
It really was another world.
If I was born in Victorian England
I might be a maid in the houses of Chelsea
or a farmers daughter without a trade
trying my hardest to simply exist.
Just another face in the crowd.
As the lines falter through time’s trees
mysteries remain; never to be resolved.
Ancestors circling around the globe
India, Australia, Wales and home
bequeathing a nomadic legend.
Inspired by one of my favourite television shows Who Do You Think You Are? and my passion for researching my ancestry.
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The Inbetween.
Every day – opening and closing;
hours spent shutting out this world
caught up in her own in between.
Trapped in repetitive imagery
paralysed by the same expressions
she escapes into Narnia.
Opens her world of black ravens
whistling over an ocean breeze
a melody of her young soul.
Every day – opening and closing
Eyes anchor the in-betweens.
Todays poem inspired by Pooky’s Poetry Prompt 34 – Doors
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Unplugged
My iPad is a portal to reality
connecting, exploring, talking
I am the writer of this world
Lost in – Who? What? Where?
I just had to unplug.
Food processors are evil
itchy little finger – torture
stands to attention in plaster
my delicious cupcakes altered
I can taste the tears on my face
my nerves screaming
the smell of failure lingering.
Later, Winter – she plucked me
from a rather fake Autumn
evolution of Australian weather
“Sautumn” turned to “Wautumn”
just like the flip of a switch.
I said it would happen.
Unplugged from my reality
Now, Unplugged from humanity
exiled to the same four walls
sniffling, coughing, mostly sleeping
reading Allegiant.
As the great machine of Melbourne
operates without me.
Soon – I will be back within my faction
fuelled by coffee and bagels
iPad is plugged in and ready to go
another week begins – tomorrow.
Due to little-finger-related technical difficulties I’ve found writing (even typing!) difficult so I took the opportunity to step away from my daily writings/musings to reconnect with the real world around me. Mother Nature, had different plans I was struck with a cold and ordered to rest. So I’ve been sleeping, reading, and resting for days now with a barely a word spoken to another human being. I wonder if the world has changed while I’ve been away… 😉
Charlie Ann Alford 
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